Generally alarm systems are designed to communicate with a monitoring station to report alarms and other conditions at the monitored premises via the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Many alarm systems can also be configured to directly contact the end user on the occurrence of various predefined conditions. If so configured, when any of these conditions occur, the alarm system notifies the end user by placing a telephone call to the end user's cellular telephone and playing a sequence of tones or playing a voice recording. Other notification techniques include sending an SMS and/or email. In addition the end user can remotely control their alarm system by calling it via the PSTN and using DTMF (touch-) tones to arm and disarm their system.
Using the PSTN for communications with, and the remote control of, an alarm system can be problematic for a range of reason, such as the fact that that numerous Telcos are sun-setting their PSTNs, many end users are cancelling the PSTN service in favour of VoIP or cellular telephones, and the PSTN interface severely limits the capabilities of a modern alarm system.
Embodiments are intended to mitigate one or more of these limitations. One embodiment enables alarm systems designed to communicate over the PSTN to enjoy the benefits of modern cellular networks as well as wired and wireless broadband networks.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,253,728 (UHS Systems Pty Ltd), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a customer terminal adapted to convert alarm system signals to a format suitable for transmission via data packets.